Mobo decision help

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wtburnette

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 24, 2004
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3,580
I'm looking at either the ASUS Rampage III Gene or the ASUS Rampage III Formula. The Gene is $70 cheaper, which is a huge price difference in my eyes. Is there a reason I should be looking at one vs the other? Is the formula worth $70 more then the gene?
 
the gene's mATX so all you're really missing out on is some pci real-estate, after that the formula has the upgraded supreme-xfi 2 and better cooling (at least I haven't heard of any heat issues yet, where as the gene is notorious for running hot w/o active cooling).

was considering both myself, but ended up going with the formula to be able to space out my video cards when I get to that upgrade, lol.
 
Well, I plan to only run a single video card. I only have a 1080p monitor and my games and such are running fine now on my current system so I don't see that changing. If I start running into framerate issues, I'll probably just upgrade to a 1GB GTX 460. The audio also isn't a big deal as I'll most likely just keep my current soundcard which is just fine. Are there heat issues with a single video card and one PCI card? If so, the Formula may be the better bet. I am using an HAF 932 case which has great cooling...
 
heat issues are from the bad NB cooler designs. the formula isn't much better, but it's got a single heatpipe extending to all the heatsinks which I guess helps.

placing a fan to direct air right at it normally seems to do the trick, most seem to use the spotcool, but you could probably easily strap a 40mm fan or something to it too.
 
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Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to go with the formula, as Newegg is running their 10% off coupon, so today is a good day to pull the trigger and in reading the specs of the two boards it looks like the Gene doesn't have eSata and I have an eSata external HDD.

Well, just pulled the trigger on the Formula and some Corsair memory. Next stop is Microcenter to pick up a i7 930 chip and a CM Hyper 212+ HSF... :D
 
Got my i7 930 and CM Hyper 212+ yesterday, can't wait till my mobo and RAM come in on Wednesday!
 
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